Kayak Competition results

Grant Montague from Viking kayaks organised a fishing competiion for kayakers over two days (Fri Sat 21/22 April) based at the Mercury Bay Game Fishing Club. The weather was perfect but the fishing was hard.

Aaron Murfitt took out the overall Champion Kayak Angler Trophy catching the heaviest combined weight of 4.92kg with a snapper weighing in at 3.65kg  and a kahawai weighing 1.27kg (all fish were gutted and gilled before weighing).

Although there were kingfish around and some anglers had hard luck "The big one that got away" stories, no kingfish were weighed in. That meant everyone was in the draw for the three kingfish prizes and also the three top prizes of Fishing Kayaks from Viking Kayaks along with tackle from Kilwell, electronics from Electronic Navigation Ltd, a "Stealthdrive"  electronic propultion system, C-Tug kayak trolleys,  dry bags from Ultimate Surf and Sport and  free Subscriptions to Fishing News.

Prize winners were:
Scott Hodgson 2nd Snapper 3.04 kg,
Alistair Hayman 3rd Snapper at 2.34kg,
Michael Ryan heaviest Kahawai 2.3kg,
2nd Kahawai Mike Ramsey 1.8kg,
Terry Parker 3rd Kahawai at 1.71kg.

Also contributing to the competition were Mavis from Coromandel Safari's and Mark Airey with fishing charts. With good feedback from anglers a revised formula for next years comp will better reflect the anglers skill and avoid the need for prizes being drawn at random should certain elusive species prove to a bit difficult to catch!